1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a tag managing method, system and article of manufacture which manages the display of tags, leader lines and icons. More particularly, the invention relates to an air traffic control display management method, system and article of manufacture which manages the display of icons representing objects such as aircraft and their associated tags and leader lines so as to present an organized display for the air traffic controller. The invention also relates to a fleet dispatch system which incorporates the inventive display management method.
2. Description of Related Art
Icons, tags and leader lines are generally known in the art wherein an icon is used to represent an object on a display, a tag displays information regarding the object and a leader line connects the icon and tag.
Conventional tag displaying systems, such as the Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS) merely display the tag at a fixed position with respect to the aircraft icon. In other words, conventional tag displaying systems maintain the tags at a fixed position in relation to their respective icons. Tags are allowed to be placed an top of runways, taxiways, other leader lines and other tags. In other words, there is no logic or intelligent management behind conventional tag displaying systems.
The result in conventional systems is that air traffic controllers are presented with a confusing picture which obscures important information. For example, by allowing tags to overlap, the air traffic controller is unable to accurately keep track of each aircraft because some of the tags are overwritten by other tags. Furthermore, by allowing tags to be placed on runways, conventional tag displaying systems lead to potentially hazardous situations. For example, a tag placed on a runway may obscure an aircraft performing a landing. Thus, the air traffic controller will not see this landing aircraft and may clear another aircraft to take off on that same runway. Because the air traffic controller was unaware of the landing aircraft due to the illogical placement of a tag, a collision may occur.
Furthermore, the fixed positional relationship of the tag and icon presents a somewhat jumpy display. In other words, when an icon moves on the display, the tag is always moved along with it. The result is that both the tag and icon appear to jump to another location. This jumpy display increases the difficultly of the air traffic controller's task because it makes it more difficult to keep track of is the locations of the aircraft and their tags.